The House by the Loch: 'a deeply satisfying work of pure imagination' - Damian Barr - Tapa dura

Completely enchanting -- Penny Vincenzi An excellent, page-turning debut * Red * Fresh and beguiling * Independent * Kirsty Wark's brilliantly vivid descriptions bring alive a story that reaches across the generations * Daily Mail * This is an appealing debut that sustains interest to the very last page... Elizabeth Pringle is a quietly heroic character and, like Arran, she never fails to charm * Independent on Sunday * affecting and tender * The Times * PRAISE FOR KIRSTY WARK'S DEBUT NOVEL, THE LEGACY OF ELIZABETH PRINGLE - 'Original and enthralling' * Guardian * Utterly compelling * The Herald * I've been enthralled by the wonderful and atmospheric world Kirsty Wark has created - really powerful and compelling. * Sue Lawrence, author of The Night He Left * It took me back to the books I adored when I was young - the sheer pleasure of immersing yourself in a single family, past and present, their lives in thrall to the sweep and power of the landscape. You need curiosity and generosity to write like this and Wark has so much of both. Her understanding of family - its mysteries, losses and secrets, and especially the fraught tenderness between mothers and daughters - is masterful. * Julie Myerson, author of SOMETHING MIGHT HAPPEN * Kirsty Wark has woven a brilliant tapestry, pulling together the threads of three generations and setting their lives against the background of one of the most beautiful and atmospheric places in Britain. Many good novelists write well about the inner lives of their characters and some can make the landscape come alive, but very few can do both as well as Kirsty. I loved The House by the Loch and couldn't wait to turn each page. * Alistair Moffat, author of The Hidden Ways * Wark's second novel brings to life Galloway - one of the most beautiful and least well-known parts of Scotland, even to many Scots. This sparsely populated but spare and beautiful landscape anchors three generations of one family struggling to come to terms with a dark secret. As with her debut, The House by the Loch draws on real historical incident and some of her own personal history while also being a deeply satisfying work of pure imagination, however real Jean and Walter and their families feel. A multi-generational story that is at once sweeping and intimate. * Damian Barr, author of You Will Be Safe Here *

A sweeping, atmospheric novel set in the beautiful Scottish countryside, of family drama and long-hidden secrets refusing to lie buried in the past, from the bestselling author of The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle. 'A deeply satisfying work of pure imagination' Damian Barr, author of You Will Be Safe Here 'Beautiful and atmospheric' Alistair Moffat, author of The Hidden Ways 'Powerful and compelling' Sue Lawrence, author of The Night He Left 'Her understanding of family - its mysteries, losses and secrets - is masterful' Julie Myerson Scotland, 1950s Walter MacMillan is bewitched by the clever, glamorous Jean Thompson and can't believe his luck when she agrees to marry him. Neither can she, for Walter represents a steady and loving man who can perhaps quiet the demons inside her. Yet their home on remote Loch Doon soon becomes a prison for Jean and neither a young family, nor Walter's care, can seem to save her. Many years later, Walter is with his adult children and adored grandchildren on the shores of Loch Doon where the family has been holidaying for two generations. But the shadows of the past stretch over them and will turn all their lives upside down on one fateful weekend. The House by the Loch is the story of a family in all its loving complexity, and the way it can, and must, remake itself endlessly in order to make peace with the past.